The committee tasked with choosing a firm to conduct a racial bias study of the Charleston Police Department will narrow down the list of seven interested vendors on Wed. July 11 at the Gaillard Center.
The meeting will start at 11 a.m. in the first floor Public Meeting Room.
[content-2] New members were added to the committee at the previous meeting on Tues. June 26. A short list decision was postponed to allow new additions more time to review the proposals.
CPD Capt. Dale Middleton and Sgt. Myron Smith have joined the ad-hoc committee, bringing the number of members to 15.
[content-3] Most of the discussion next Wednesday will take place in executive session, though the public will be able to see when action is taken.
The chosen firm will be tasked with uncovering “any aspects of implicit bias, systemic and individual racial bias” in the police department, according to a scope of work drafted in part by the Charleston Area Justice Ministry, a social justice advocacy group consisting of 27 area congregations. The firm will also assess “patterns and trends in use of force by city geography, community characteristics, departmental units, incident factors, subject demographics, and officer demographics.”
The city’s current search for a firm to conduct the audit sprung from community concerns that the initial company contracted to do the job was neither
qualified enough nor diverse enough to perform the study.
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